Uncharted 2: Among Thieves

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Since this is one PS3 game I have thoroughly enjoyed I figured I would make a thread concerning the sequel to the game so we can post any information and what not that the blogosphere and interweb gives us.

IGN.com
Uncharted Sequel Named
PS3 adventure fans looking for a follow up to Naughty Dog's popular Uncharted: Drake's Fortune don't have much longer to wait, as the developer has been hard at work on a sequel to their popular 2007 title. According to the January 2009 issue of Game Informer, the sequel will be called Uncharted 2: Among Thieves and will cover the voyages of Marco Polo and his explorations. Uncharted 2 will have a number of new gameplay features, including a free climbing mechanic and stealth sections within the game, as well as new locations, characters and story elements.

Along with the announcement of the game, a teaser trailer has been released that shows Nathan Drake walking through a blizzard, stumbling and trying to protect his eyes. In a voiceover, he mentions that he should have quit when he was ahead but goes on to state that fortune favors the bold as he reaches down and picks up an ornately carved artifact sticking out of the snow. Unfortunately for Nathan, it appears that he's seen much better times: he's favoring his right arm and appears to have been severely beaten with cuts over his face and arms.

Trailer:


Do yourself a favour and view on the PS3 through, it looks much better in HD. It can be found in the PSN Store in the US region, I have no idea about other regions though.

Here is the article from GameInformer, my scanner wasn't cooperating with me so I took photographs of the pages. Sorry about the quality of them. Please be advised that the files are quite large but reading it is rather hit or miss. At least you can see the photos if you have a hard time reading the small print. If these are against the AUP then feel free to take them down, I don't know the legality of copying a magazine article.

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Here are the bullet points though from www.gamefaqs.com member maddoggnick96 for those who either are having a hard time reading the article or just can't because their internet.

maddoggnick96
Uncharted 2 is the cover story with (what I believe is) the first screens of the game.

- The biggest thing in the article IMO is that there's a new girl named Chloe Frazer. GI asked about Elena and Sully's return but they had no comment.
- The story is about looking for the ships that Marco Polo "lost" while returning home to Italy.
- Melee combat is more dynamic now.
- They mentioned they were using only 30% of the PS3's power with Drake's Fortune and are planning to use nearly 100% with Among Thieves.
- A demo was shown to GI with Drake going through a city (I believe in Nepal), and he's stealthily taking out guards and escaping the city.
- Nolan North returns to be Drake and Chloe Frazer is played by Claudia Black (Stargate SG-1, Fargate).
- The Sixaxis mechanics were ditched for such things as throwing grenades.
- One of the weapons revealed is a rocket launcher that Chloe uses (might only be for the cinematic).
- There are no load screens.
- The score is being composed by Greg Edmonson (same guy from the first one).
- Weapons can be used in any stance (running, behind cover, hanging, climbing a wall, etc.).
- You can now move while aiming behind cover.

PS3Fanboy.com
Uncharted 2 preview in Game Informer reveals juicy details
After watching the breath-taking teaser trailer that was supposedly rendered in real-time, we couldn't wait to find more about Uncharted 2: Among Thieves. Well, our wish is Game Informer's command -- their cover story for January features adventurer Nathan Drake's second outing and various sources on the interwebz have already gathered all the little juicy bits.

MaDogNik96 of GameFAQs reports that Drake will be looking for the "lost" ships of Marco Polo and will joined by one Chloe Frazer, who is voiced by Claudia Black of Stargate SG-1 fame. Speaking of voice actors, Nolan North will reprise his role as the main protagonist (editor's note: yay!). New improvements and mechanics, some of which were already reported, include free climbing, stealth gameplay, "more dynamic" melee combat, elimination of SIXAXIS controls, access to your weaponry during any stance, improved graphics, retooled QTE sequences that give the player more control and more.

The game will also reportedly use "nearly 100%" of the PS3's power (Drake's Fortune has been quoted as using 30%), but that sounds a stat that will remain true only until Uncharted 3 is unveiled.

Here is also a better version of the screenshots/concept art.
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Yes. This is how an official game thread needs to be. Nice screenies. Be sure to update the first post as more information trickles in. 👍
 
Thanks. I will stay on top of things the best I can and please post anything you find. I will keep the first page updated.
 
I loved the first one, Naughty Dog is one of the best developers for PS3. Ditching the stunning jungle locations found in the first one is a pretty bold step in itself, 👍 to Naughty Dog.
 
I don't think I've ever seen an Edge magazine around here but maybe someone will post it online. I'm guessing the magazine is a European one though.

PS3Fanboy.com
Uncharted 2 details revealed in latest EDGE
Those lucky so-and-sos at EDGE have had some eyes-on time with upcoming half-tuck-em-up Uncharted 2. The preview in the latest issue reveals a lot of backstory as well as quelling our fears about the potential of those stealth sections. Fans of Nathan Drake will be happy to hear that Uncharted 2 will delve further into his character, showing that while he's "affable and charming, he can also be a jerk."

No longer is Nathan on a quest for Francis Drake, instead he's turned his sights to Marco Polo, whose journey back to Europe from the court of Kublai Khan saw his 600-man fleet dwindle to just a dozen survivors. Ultimately Drake's journey will lead him to Tibet and an ancient city, which is said to house a gem that can grant wishes. The story in this game will allow for plenty of variety in the environments you'll be visiting.

Naughty Dog also clarifies what they mean by a "stealth mechanic," which put many people on edge when the game was announced. There is no intention of turning Uncharted into the next Splinter Cell; "stealth just gives you something more in the toolbox - another element, another choice that's available to you. Stealth or shooting - both choices are valid at any time." There's plenty more interesting stuff to read in the full article. It's certainly done a good job getting us even more excited about what's to come from Naughty Dog next year.
 
I don't think I've ever seen an Edge magazine around here but maybe someone will post it online. I'm guessing the magazine is a European one though.

Click Me

Edge is indeed a European magazine, and a well rated one at that, being about as impartial as you are going to get.

I loved the first Uncharted and this one just looks stunning, and if it plays as well as the first I'm going to be more than happy.

Personally I love Naughty Dog for demonstrating that the PS3 is capable of stunning games if you know how to work with it and also for proving that next-gen games can use colours other than grey and brown.


Regards

Scaff
 
I have to admit I wasn't enticed when I first played the Demo for the Drake Fortune, but After looking and reading about number 2 I had to go get myself the game nd play it, Im just going through the game at the moment and all I can say is that Im loving it and this will be a day one purchase for me.
 
I never payed much attention to the first but seeing those screenshots it looks stunning. I may go download the demo for the first if its still on the PS Store.
 
I can't believe that there are some people that never played the first one.

Trust me, play it. The demo was such a poor representation. All it did was show that they have cool graphics and give you a very small taste of the controls.

Trust me, it gets to be much more as you go through the game.

The simple awesomeness of the first one is why I, and many others, are so excited about Uncharted 2.

Nathan Drake will stand well next to Sackboy and Kratos as icons of the PlayStation brand.

The only thing I can fault Naughty Dog for is not finding a way to keep Crash, but seeing what they have done since then I will let it slide.
 
The first one was quite possibly one of the best games on the PS3. I bet this one will be really good. The environment and surroundings of the first one are what made it such a great game.
 
I loved the demo of the first one, but I must agree, it must have been a poor representation of the game. I have heard many people say they hated the demo and have either avoided the game, or picked it up now (cheap) and are kicking themselves as to why they didn't like the game in the first place (the damn demo!).

btw, there has been a recent media update on various gaming sites for this game and the new screenies of the game looks gorgeous.

I have so much confidence that ND will once again deliver.
 
Joystiq posted a very interesting and extensive interview with the developer:


Talking Uncharted 2 with Naughty Dog's Evan Wells

When he wasn't busy showing us the best way to get Nathan Drake killed, Naughty Dog co-president Evan Wells was patiently listening to our questions about facial hair, multiplayer plans and the adventurer's latest female companion.

Thankfully, he answered everything we lobbed at him (without lobbing any physical objects back). Read on after the break to find out what other secrets Uncharted 2: Among Thieves has to offer.

So how soon after the first game did you guys decide, "We're going to do a sequel?"

We had always intended [Uncharted] to become a franchise. So the hope was always there that we could just jump right into a sequel. It was probably right around the time we were wrapping up production -- and it was a crazy production. Then definitely a lot of things started clicking right at the tail end. It was fairly big for Naughty Dog standards, anyway.

There were probably 70 people working on the game at the end. So you have all these people working on various components that were all coming together at the end. We really saw it all live up to what we had hoped it would be, in terms of just bringing in all that action video game play with the cinematic narrative story telling.

We thought we had hit on the winning formula. So it was pretty much just to confirm our beliefs when we saw the reviews that we got. We thought, "OK. There is definitely a sequel coming."

We didn't really have a lot of time to do pre-planning before the end of the game. So it wasn't like we had started production during Uncharted: Drake's Fortune, but we just had to jump in there after we had a much-needed vacation and get right to work on the sequel.


Was the first game always meant to be a PS3 title? It's not like the kernel of an idea that was bouncing around here for a while, possibly for the PS2?

No. We were looking at the PlayStation hardware specs when they were first telling us what the PS3 could do. That is when we started trying to decide, "Well, what is going to be Naughty Dog's next generation intellectual property, and what are we going to try to do with this new power and hardware?"

We thought it was a natural progression from PS1 to PS2. We started with this big-headed, big-eyed, furry mascot character to something that is still fantastic and stylized with Jak and Daxter. [Jak] is more humanoid. He is an elf.

We started getting more into the storytelling with those games. We thought finally with PlayStation 3 we wanted to go fully real with real humans. We thought that the technology was there to finally get that emotional expression out of the characters' faces and be able to do what we set out to do with Uncharted.


Did you guys learn from the experience of working on the first game with the hardware? It was so new at the time and a lot of companies were having difficulties with devkits. Now we are seeing the second tier of game development. Have you learned a lot and was it a smoother run?

Absolutely. It was a huge step for the entire industry really to move on to the next generation. I don't think it was restricted to just the PlayStation. I think everybody had to rethink how they were going to do things with all this new power, not only from multi-threaded processors, but also through graphics cards that had pix illustrators and were capable of doing much more realistic materials on your textures.

So, absolutely. It was a huge learning curve for us. We rewrote our engine from scratch. We started with a line of code with Uncharted basically, so we could build an engine and a tools platform custom-built for what we thought the system was capable of handling.


The budget for the first game was said to be around $20 million dollars, and that had to include that engine creation from scratch, which is a big thing. Since you are using the same engine, has this been a cheaper endeavor? Are you guys spending the same amount?

We are spending the same amount. You always want to be able to just do more. Definitely it is a leg up to start with that technological foundation, but what you try to do with it is just that much more.

"... it is a leg up to start with that technological foundation, but what you try to do with it is just that much more."
Not only is the spectacle part of things that we are doing bigger, in terms of the kind of enemies and encounters that Drake is going to find himself in, but we are also trying to deliver a richer narrative experience as well. So both sides come at a cost. In order to get all those real big set pieces it requires a lot of custom scripting of events every moment of the way. You have got something happening; an explosion happening or even just a water drip. All those little effects take time and people to do.

On the narrative side, working with some really talented actors and working with them over a really long period of time, as I was pinpointing in the presentation; we are going to the mocap studio two or three times a month minimum with these actors trying to capture their performances. We work with the House of Moves, which is a big studio right here in Culver City. They are just right down the street. We are there all the time and all that adds up.


In the first game, a lot of the innovation was in the environmental puzzles and the platforming. Is that going to be more complex in this game?

We have really expanded [Drake's] move set so he could traverse his environment in new ways and explore his environment in new ways. The biggest change, I think, comes in expanding on that traversal gunplay.

The fact that, from all those different states, whether he is balancing on a balance beam, whether he is hanging from the rafters, whether he is clinging to the side of a wall, he can shoot and engage his enemies from those different positions. So it really adds a vertical element to our combat spaces and gives Uncharted a completely unique feel from other third-person shooters, because you can jump, climb, and swing -- even when he is on a rope, he can shoot. So it is all opened up and allows a lot of freedom.

It was a big overhaul; that and being able to do all those moves on moving objects. So on the train, or on the building, or riding in the back of a truck; all those things. That really required a huge overhaul to all of our systems, because basically every single system was touched in order to be able to do that.

But the payoff is huge. It really allows our designers to think completely creatively. Any situation you can imagine or any scene from a movie, it is like, "Well we can put that in our game."


At this point, are you guys as sick of comparisons to Tomb Raider as Crystal Dynamics is?

I imagine we could have a pretty healthy competition to see who is sicker of it! It comes up a lot. The only reason I can see it is sort of natural for people to think that is simply because they share an occupation of treasure hunter.

But from the style of gameplay, ours is much faster and action based, and has a really unique think pace to it. There is also an equally interesting, but very different pace in terms of the exploration or the puzzle element.

Even the character designs are wildly different, apart from the gender, which is a little bit superficial. The fact that Drake is much more at the edge of his abilities and pushing himself to his limit, versus Lara who seems much more in control all of the time and has much more of the grace of an acrobat, and her coming from a background of wealth and education. Drake is much more of a street smarts and school of hard knocks kind of guy.


So is Nolan North going to be in every game that you guys work on?

He is a very talented actor. He certainly embodies Nathan Drake and just brings so much to the process in terms of his ability to capture that really unique and comedic character that Nathan Drake has become.

He is really great to collaborate with from the standpoint of, as Amy was saying, that we have rehearsal days. This goes for all of our actors really. We sit there doing table reads, and as they are reading through the scripts that we are going to shoot the next day, they are suggesting more natural ways to say it or bring in new lines. We go to make the adjustments and they really do bring a lot of interesting character to their own performance.

Then when we go to capture all of the audio for our in game moments, like when he is talking about the nice parking job and all that stuff, what we will do is we just record a game play, a play through one of our testers, myself, or whoever is playing the game, and then we will just sit that in front of Nolan in the sound studio. He just ADRs from the game play footage. Some of the best stuff comes from stuff that we didn't even write. They are just comments as he is watching the game.


We noticed that Naughty Dog protagonists tend to get goatees every time. We didn't get to see the adversary in this. Is he going to have a goatee?

Yeah, we do have a lot of goatees. Hmm, let me think. No. He is clean shaven.


World exclusive! Clean shaven! Are we going to see cameos from Elena or Sully in this game?

We get asked that question a lot. It is really flattering, because I think that means that we have done a great job of creating some characters that people are actually interested in seeing. But for the time being, we are really just focusing on ...

We want to introduce Chloe Frazer because she is such an important part of this game, and we don't want to be distracted by talking about any other characters that may or may not be in the game. So yeah, it is all about Chloe right now.


What is the time frame between the two games? How much time has passed?

We haven't really specified, but it is in the vicinity of two to three years. It is a decent amount of time.


Are there any throwbacks or references to Drake's Fortune?

Well the most important thing for us to do is make sure that the game is a standalone adventure; that it is its own chapter and that any throwbacks are just for added color for somebody who might have played it.


Perhaps a little aside that somebody will notice?

Yeah.


You don't have to have played the first one to get this one.

Not at all. A really simple example of that is some of the signs we were climbing on in that demo you saw today, say like the hotel sign. We are doing little throwbacks like that. (Note: the hotel sign in question reads "Hotel El Dorado.")


The first Uncharted takes a swing towards Doom territory towards the end. Is that going to happen in this game?

Part of that is that there are mystical elements to the world that don't necessarily have a supernatural explanation. We really try to walk that X-Files line where there could be a real world explanation. So I don't know if we made the point clear enough in the first game. But the idea was that there was this virus trapped inside that sarcophagus, or that mummy, for thousands of years. It was released, and of course these people have no immunities built up to this virus and it has some really nasty effects.

People that survived the effects inbred and they created those creatures that we saw in the first game. That was the more scientific explanation as opposed to the mystical one, that they are just demons.


Yeah, like some gateway to hell has been opened.

Exactly. So, that is something that we always want to tie in. We always want to make sure that there is a fairly rational and plausible explanation through science for these things, but we also want to give ourselves some liberty of exploring some slightly more fantastic elements.


Are you guys adding any sort of online multiplayer element -- time trials or anything like that?

We definitely want to enrich the player's experience in as many ways as we possibly can. Right now though our focus is to enrich it through creating a much deeper and enjoyable single-player experience.

We are going to try to add some time to that as well as make it really deep and give you a lot of reasons for replaying it, whether it is through Trophies, whether it is through expansion of our medal system, which we added in the first game. Both of those will coexist, so there will be even more things to try to unlock with the bonus material we had on the disc. We are going to do that again.

As far as other online elements, we will see what the future holds.


One of the cool elements from the first game was using the SIXAXIS controller to arc your grenades, and then balancing, although we think there were actually only a couple of logs he walked across . We noticed in this demo you ran across a balance beam. We couldn't tell if you guys were using the SIXAXIS at all. Are you guys going to incorporate that again? Will the same grenade mechanic be there? Anything new?

Yeah. We actually rethought our grenade throwing mechanic from the first game. It is really not a comment on the SIXAXIS as much as it was a comment on the availability of the grenade; having it be a third weapon that you selected, I think, was enough of a deterrent that people rarely used it, because it was so much easier to just go left or right and use your single hand gun or two hand gun.

That third weapon slot became one too many. So we have opted to give the grenade its very own button. So therefore...


There is no aiming or arcing?

Yeah. So we took out the SIXAXIS control from that just so you could access it really quick with just the click of a button. We do a lot of algorithmic checks to make sure that we know your proposed target. We fire towards your reticule essentially.

The great thing about that is you can, while you have got your gun out and you are aiming at somebody shooting and you decide to throw a grenade, you can do that with one smooth motion. You never have to put your gun away, take out your grenade and then throw it.

We just wanted to make the grenades a much more integrated part of your arsenal. So that is why we opted to do that.


What about the balance moments?

The balance moments are also removed from the SIXAXIS. We are doing it all from the analog stick. It is something that we are just really trying to find the sweet spot of, where SIXAXIS doesn't actually end up feeling like a tacked-on gimmick, but actually feels like an integrated enhancement to your controls.


The first game didn't require a mandatory install. Can the same be said for Uncharted 2?

That is the plan. That goes back to our goal of providing this seamless experience. We want people to feel like they are playing a movie. When you get a new Blu-ray or DVD you don't have to install it. You just sit down and start enjoying it right away.

So, for as long as we can we are going to try to avoid any install. But what we do instead is we take advantage of the hard drive in other ways. Essentially, we are installing as you are playing. So, as you are playing through the game, we know what part is coming up next because it is a roughly linear experience. We are basically just caching out the hard drive while you are playing and getting the advantage of faster load times of your hard drive without the install.


When Uncharted came out it had these lush green jungle environments. Everything was brightly lit. In this one it seems like you guys are going all over the map with a lot of different locations. Based on what we say today in the demo, in the war-torn city in Nepal, it looked very colorful. Is Drake going to be encountering different environments that are darker?

We are basically going to be all over the map in terms of color palettes and lighting tones. We are really driven by the story more than anything else. We just sort of take advantage of the environments that the story affords us to visit.

You are going to be going from some dark underground tunnels to some brightly lit war-torn streets to lush green jungle and swamp environments to the icy caves and mountains of the Himalayas, visiting some really interesting man-made structures in those as well.

So yeah, the color palette is going to be very diverse, even more so than the first one.


What do you consider the single biggest improvement in the sequel?

I think it is the enhancement of the experience that you get through having that really rich, character-driven narrative; the fact that as you are playing through the game you really start to care about these characters. You really are concerned for their well being. You recognize that although you are the hero, you are fallible and you could fail. The outcome isn't predetermined. You really feel like Drake has got to try hard and you as the player controlling Drake have to put in your best effort in order to succeed.

I think that is going to give Uncharted 2 this unique character that separates it form a lot of the other video games out there that might want to be paying lip service to the fact that they are story driven or are really trying to capture a good narrative.

Often times when people say that, they are not really talking about a visceral, spectacle level of big explosions that might hit you in your gut. They aren't hitting you in your heart or your head. I think it is tapping into that that's going to leave the biggest impression on people.


A lot of the response to the first game was after you guys released the demo and people had a chance to get their hands on it. Are you guys planning to do a demo with this game?

We haven't announced any plans for a demo. I think the first game's demo was good, but I am again talking with 20/20 hindsight; I don't know that we did infuse that demo with enough of that character-driven narrative that we could have. I think people who might have played the demo and been turned off by it, after being encouraged by their friends to actually play it, went back and said, "Oh my gosh. The game is so much better than the demo."

It is something that is hard to capture in a 10- or 15-minute slice of a game. I think we are going to have to really work on making sure that people understand what the overall experience is without trying to get them to understand it through a 10-minute demo.


One of the criticisms against the first game was its length. Some people were finishing it in six to ten hours. Have you guys made an effort to make this one seem like a longer game play?

Yes. The overall experience is going to be longer, just from sitting down and playing the game. There will also be more reasons to go in there and play it a second, third, or tenth time. Some people played the first one that many times.

We really do want to give the player more value for their gaming dollar.


Is there still a selectable difficulty when you start the game?

Yes. We intend on putting in an even easier mode this time, although as a developer who played the game everyday, we thought the game was easy enough.

What we are finding is that such a diverse group of people are attracted to this game that we want to make our easy mode even easier. I am never sure exactly how to put this without coming across as completely sexist, but we often get described as sort of the girlfriend game, where guys enjoy playing it.

It is interesting for a spectator to watch it. You get drawn into the story just as much watching somebody else play the game as you do playing it yourself. Rather than just having those people who might not be gamers only be able to watch it, we want to also allow them the opportunity to play it.


What do you think the biggest thing you guys learned from the first game was?

Certainly rewriting the engine from scratch and rewriting the tools from scratch was something that I never really want to repeat again.


How far were you guys into development when that happened?

We were right at the very beginning. We were put in an interesting situation. Coming from the PS2, we had developed our own programming language and our own development environment that was based off the programming language LISP, which is very popular at MIT and some A.I. circles.

We felt that going to the PS3 we really wanted to be able to embrace more of the first-party Sony developer community and be able to share stuff more freely. If we were working in our own unique way, we couldn't do that, so we had to adopt to C++ and basically the way everybody else was doing things.

Basically, what that meant was flushing all of our history of PS2 stuff down the drain and restarting. It was difficult to deal with, but in some ways it was good that we went through it, because I think we are in a stronger position now that we have. It was sort of like hitting the reset button and doing things with some good hindsight. You maybe get roped into doing things a certain way just because of inertia. We really got to start things fresh.

I wouldn't do it again. But I think we are better off for it.


How long did that process take? Are you talking about months?

It was actually about a year of a pretty difficult struggle. Then even after that we did have one reboot of our tools, even though we had started from scratch. You would think that you could do it right not having inherited any legacy code. We made some pretty big mistakes with our tools. All the artists couldn't really work in the system because they weren't stable.

So we hit he reset button after that. I think a lot of people went through the idea that the PS3 and the next generation, which is the current generation now, things were going to be night and day different. In the past we never had these really sky high expectations of how many polygons you are going to be pushing and these massive data sets that would dwarf anything you did in the past.

It turns out that although we can create visuals that create that impression, the way in which doing it hasn't changed that radically, and you don't really need that big of a paradigm shift in your development process.


The climbing mechanics that we saw seemed to be closer to something like Assassin's Creed, where there is no set path. That's new for this game, right?

We wanted to get that into the first Uncharted. It was something that we didn't have time to develop. So it was one of the very first things that we started in on after we wrapped up the first game.

It was important for us because that again just allows that more authentic way of moving across a wall. It got a little bit jumpy with a lot of the dyno jumps in the first game when he is jumping from handhold to handhold. Now it allows him to explore the environment in a much more natural way.


A lot of the game is based in real history and then it diverges. Have you guys thought about an ARG or anything like that to get the word out more so than the first game?

We have. It is probably a little bit telling that you ask that question. We did have an ARG for the game ...


Oh, was there one?

Yes, but it was not that well executed or picked up on. I am not sure exactly where it fell through the cracks. But yes, we did have an ARG. It got some attention, but not nearly enough to make the impression that we were hoping to make.

We are exploring a lot of unique ways for getting the word out for Uncharted 2. The campaign is only sort of getting underway now that we have announced the game. We have got a much larger staff of marketing people working on this game and all those clever ideas.


We know we've asked you about online and multiplayer plans, but do you guys feel pressured to add that stuff for the back of the box stuff to say, "We have got this. We are offering ..."

It is not pressure so much. I mean, there is a lot of pressure now that we are kind of competing against ourselves. I guess the first game out you are competing with all the other next-gen games that have come out and you are really trying to make sure that you can keep your technology and your gameplay competitive.

Now we are going to be drawing a lot of comparisons to ourselves, so competing with ourself is a big deal. As far as the bullet points on the back of the box, it is something that I would love to see the industry as a whole shift away from.

It seems so last gen to say, "16 Weapons! 10 Levels!" Now I feel like we are this new entertainment medium that is right up there with film in terms of how our generation is experiencing their entertainment.

You don't see that on the back of a DVD or Blu-ray box telling you how many locals and how many weapons get fired. You wouldn't talk about the experience. You talk about the actors. You talk about the story. That is what I would like to see us focus more on as an industry.


You guys have gone to great lengths, it seems like more so than the original, to provide this second character Chloe with Claudia Black. Is she ever playable in the game or are you only Nathan Drake throughout the game?

You are only Nathan Drake. There are potential moments where... like on the Jet Ski in the first game where Elena helped you shoot and all that. It is a game about Nathan Drake and we are trying to make this the richest single-player experience that is out there. So, right now, the only person you control is Nathan Drake.

Thank you so much for your time, Evan!
 
Looking forward to this release. Really enjoyed the first ones story and overall game play. Looks like they made some noticeable improvements from the first one. :)👍
 
Uncharted 2: Among Thieves Interrogation
Published on Mar 18, 2009 by Greg Miller

Naughty Dog goes toe-to-toe with IGN, answers some burning questions, and gives us some new screens.

Uncharted 2: Among Thieves can't get here soon enough. Sure, the PlayStation 3 has a pretty good year ahead of itself with Infamous, Fat Princess, and a whole lot more, but everyone wants to know what's happening with Nathan Drake. Sadly, there's still a lot of time between us and the fall release date.

It was with that in mind that IGN tracked down Richard Lemarchand, Naughty Dog co-lead designer on Uncharted 2, and put a few more burning questions into his ear. Sure, we've gone after the Dogs before, but this time we wanted the nitty gritty details on how all the new mechanics in Uncharted 2 are going to work.

Thankfully, Lemarchand didn't call security -- he even gave us some new screenshots. Want to see what he had to say?

IGN: Enough is enough: where are Elena Fisher and Sully?!

Richard Lemarchand: Someone said they saw them arguing over by the water cooler earlier today - but we're really not ready to give away the details about what's happened to the characters you got near and dear with in Uncharted: Drake's Fortune. You'll find out soon enough!

IGN: Drake climbed and stuff in the first game; how is this new traversal system any different?

Richard Lemarchand: In short, the climbing part of the traversal system in Uncharted 2 is much more realistic now. Reinforcing the sense of realism that the world of Uncharted has, by making sure that the characters and their actions behave just like you would expect in the real world, has been a key area of focus for us throughout development.

To that end, we've added animations and technology that allow Drake to climb and explore the environment in a much more free-form and organic manner. Drake's movement has expanded by leaps and bounds (Pun intended!) beyond just jumping from handhold to handhold. Drake now freely clambers hand over hand on all sorts of objects like walls, ladders, signposts, monkey bars, ledges, ropes and so on. We added the ability for him to swing on free-hanging ropes across chasms, too.

We've also made sure not to separate out the times when you use these new abilities from the combat sequences. We wanted to create a seamless experience of "traversal combat," flowing freely in and out of combat as you travel through the world. That means that you'll definitely find yourself in the middle of a firefight while running, jumping and climbing around the environment. Again, to keep things realistic, we've made sure that Drake can fire his gun during all of these actions. So if you're trying to get to higher ground and an enemy is already up there shooting down at you, you can fire at him and take him out as you're climbing your way up. This has opened up the design possibilities available to us in a massive way, since we can now throw combat into the game anywhere it looks like it will be interesting.

IGN: How do you make it feel fresh from the player's perspective? I mean, how do you keep it from being a stale mechanic of "Walk to this, press X?"

Richard Lemarchand: Our goal with both of the Uncharted games has been to create an experience that is seamless and completely engaging - something that holds your attention from beginning to end, just like a terrific action-adventure movie would. Basically, we don't want you to put down the controller until you're done playing through the game at least once! Based on anecdotes we've heard, that actually happened to some people with Uncharted: Drake's Fortune, and we were always happy to hear it.

One of the ways that we approach our game design to make it feel wholly engaging is to make sure that you always have a strong idea about what you have to do to proceed, without relying on methods which pull you out of the experience. So, if we've done our job right, at any given point you'll always know where you're headed next. . If we've done that, we can then set things in any way that we want in order to keep the game fresh and interesting - whether it's exploring, solving puzzles or surviving through combat as you progress in the story and move from one amazing place to another.

IGN: Drake will be climbing over more than just rock ledges this time around; how do you go about opening up his world and not having your team beat their heads in with keyboards?

Richard Lemarchand: It all starts with level layout, really! Good planning and solid design is usually the key to stopping yourself going crazy when you're setting out on an endeavor as complicated as developing a story-driven character-action game.

At the beginning of the development of Uncharted 2 we had a huge leg up in that we already had the engine that we used to create Uncharted: Drake's Fortune. This meant that, unlike with the first game, we could start building simple prototype levels from plain-looking geometry at the very start of the design process. We call these simple, rough levels "blockmesh", and they're the foundation of our level design process. We can very quickly rough out a space in 3D, build it in our tools, and then immediately run and climb around it to get a sense of the space: the feeling of scale that the environment has, how easy it is to perceive paths through the level, the lines of sight that you have from the various spots that you can climb or run to, and so on.

At the same time we can start to throw in enemies, and get a sense of how well the space works for combat, as well as chucking in interactive objects to prototype out the puzzles that we're considering. At this point, the Naughty Dog Game Engine 2.0 is like a giant sandbox, where we can incredibly quickly create an interactive demo of pretty much any idea we can think of. We can easily add in or take out hand-holds and ledges to climb up to and run along, and because the geometry is still so simple, it's incredibly easy to improve based on the discoveries we make as we traverse around it.

After that, it becomes an intense process of play-testing the level and iteratively improving its design, making small changes until the blockmesh plays really well, and we can pass it on the artists who will make it look amazing. It was really great to be able to hit the ground running as fast as we did with this game, and I think that when players see how freely they can clamber over and around the environment as they lock horns with the enemies, they'll get a sense of the fun we had laying out the game's levels.

IGN: What about the snow we've heard so little about since that first trailer? How have you folks tackled weather this time around?

Richard Lemarchand: One of the things that Uncharted: Drake's Fortune received a lot of praise for was the quality of our water effects. We'd set ourselves a goal to make the water in Uncharted look as good as anything that had ever been seen in a video game, and we collectively spent a lot of time working to make sure that our water looked as realistic as possible, and that it acted very realistically, too.

For Uncharted 2: Among Thieves, we've taken that dedication and attention to detail, and applied it to snow and ice - which is really just water with the temperature lowered by fifty degrees! Unfortunately, we hadn't implemented a "freeze all the water in this level" button in our engine, so we had to do it the good old fashioned way - with lots of hard work and the skilful creation of new shaders and visual effects.

We've spent a lot of time focused on the distinctive look that snow has as it falls and is blown by the wind, and of course on the way in which Drake leaves footprints as he trudges through the snowdrifts in the Himalayan mountains that he ventures to. When he's out in the snow he'll accumulate a layer of snowflakes on his clothes and in his hair, which will slowly thaw when he gets back inside under cover. Ice reflects light in a way that cleverly mimics the sub-surface scattering that goes on inside a chunk of frozen water, and gives it a look of incredible volume and density. We have a few more tricks up our sleeves, too - all in all, we're really happy with the way the weather's shaping up in Uncharted 2.

IGN: Will Drake have different animations depending on his surroundings --shivering in the cold, slipping on wet pavement, etc.?

Richard Lemarchand: We're big believers that great animation grounds a character in the reality of a world better than almost anything else, and so we're paying lots of attention to giving Drake a very wide range of context-dependent animation that helps sell what's happening around him in the world.

One new animation feature for Uncharted 2 is that, if he hasn't been spotted by the enemies in an area that he enters, Drake will hunker down and look as if he's trying to keep a low profile as he walks along, in order to get the drop on his foes. Drake still stumbles over uneven terrain or if he only just makes a jump, and he will look stressed while he's in combat, as we layer additional animations into both his posture and his facial features.

Another huge new feature for us in that we've added technology that lets any character in the game perform all of their traversal and combat behaviors on any kind of moving object. This has expanded what's possible for our game design in an incredible way, and has given us the ability to easily create those big summer blockbuster moments from the movies that the Uncharted universe is so inspired by. Whether it's fighting on a moving vehicle as it races through the countryside, or running around inside a tower block as it starts to collapse - all of those tense, over-the-top moments can now be experienced by players in gameplay, while they're actually playing.

IGN: How does the ice/snow function as a gameplay mechanic?

Richard Lemarchand: We don't want to give away all our secrets - you'll have to use your imagination to figure out all the ways in which we might use sub-zero temperatures in the service of gameplay! One thing I will say is that if you've ever tried to fight an intense cover-based gun battle against a vicious enemy in the middle of a Force Ten snowstorm, then you'll appreciate how complicated the reduced visibility can make things for combatants on both sides…

IGN: How long will this title be?

Richard Lemarchand: We're not quite ready to say how long the experience will be, since we still have plenty of development time in front of us before we ship.
However, we're making sure that the end result is not only a satisfying length to play through, but that it stays true to the needs of our story.

On top of that, we're planning on adding several features to the game that will increase replayability and extend the gameplay experience for everyone. We'll be revealing those features at a later date, so hold tight for more info!

IGN: What's your goal with Uncharted 2? Are you trying to make the most realistic traversal game featuring snow ever created?

Richard Lemarchand: You left out amazing cover-based shooting, intriguing problem-solving, our gripping story, our awesome character performances, and…

But seriously, if you distill all of the incredible variety of stuff that we're putting into this game into one simple concept: we really just want to create the most amazing and playable version of a summer blockbuster action movie that has ever been seen on the PLAYSTATION 3, or on any game console, for that matter. We want the quality of our performances and writing, and the careful way that the story interweaves with the very best action-gameplay we've ever created, to really transport the player into a world of adventure that they'll never forget.

We really think that we're outdoing ourselves with Uncharted 2, and we can't wait to see what people think of what we're making!

IGN: When can the fans expect to hear more about this game -- i.e. when will you stop torturing me and let me play it?

Richard Lemarchand: But it's so much fun to torture you! Of course, that means not quite yet - but you'll get your hands on it when we think you've suffered enough!

This game can't get here soon enough! The new HD screenshots are really impressive as well. 👍
 
Hopefully they'll release another demo for this one, I did enjoy the first games demo but it just didn't sell me when at the time it'd cost me £30+. I'd consider buying it now that it should be cheap and infact I may do so. A good demo can really boost a games success and the first one deserved much of it's praise for those who enjoy that type of game. I also wonder how a co-op mode would go down if possible in Uncharted.
 
Still not cheap by my standards. Pretty much everything else that came out when it did is a budget title now except Uncharted. Have to find a used copy only to get it cheap. (under $30 USD)
 
Still not cheap by my standards. Pretty much everything else that came out when it did is a budget title now except Uncharted. Have to find a used copy only to get it cheap. (under $30 USD)
Buy it used. Blu-Ray's don't get messed up as easily as DVDs. I have yet to get a Blu Ray rental or used purchase with any problems.

Besides, it is fully worth the $60 launch price, so $30 is a steal.
 
Uncharted 2 Co-op and multiplayer have been confirmed by Naughty Dog.

http://ps3.ign.com/articles/976/976163p1.html

You're going to be able to save entire multiplayer matches to your hard drive and then edit them and view them in Cinema Mode. Rotating the camera at will and zooming in on specific fights will be just some of the commands you have for the ten cinema save slots at your fingertips

Go to Ps3fanboy.com, gamespot.com for more Uncharted 2 previews. Everything looks very solid so far.👍
 
As I always say, if I get a crappy singleplayer experience and the only response to that I get is, "but it has an awesome multiplayer" I am dropping this in the trash. Singleplayer only would have been a preorder from me, but seeing how much effort has been put into multiplayer means I am renting it first.

I have faith in Naughty Dog, but hat made Drake's Fortune great was the story. If there is any sacrifice just so we can get this multiplayer it will ruin what I most desire from this game.

I have gone from excited to cautious optimism with this news.
 
I can agree with that, I hate that games now days are more concerned with everything else but a story. Graphics tend to be the biggest pet peeve with me on the subject but I suspect you are right with the multiplayer thing. It has ruined many games in the past.
 
I can agree with that, I hate that games now days are more concerned with everything else but a story. Graphics tend to be the biggest pet peeve with me on the subject but I suspect you are right with the multiplayer thing. It has ruined many games in the past.

I call it Halo 2 syndrome. Of course, Drakes Fortune suffered from Halo syndrome (unnecessary scary plot twist), so this shouldn't surprise me if the story suffers here.
 
Story is also very important to me, but just like other things, a story can also have a negative impact on the actual gameplay. For instance, as others have also mentioned before, even in this forum, despite the unrealistic plot twist in Uncharted, what it did do is add an additional highly charged and challenging gameplay element to the game... which without it, would have been dull.... after all, killing an endless supply of pirates and mercenaries can get rather dull after time. ;)

The trick to a great game in my opinion is finding a balance... but no matter what, no game will ever appeal equally to everyone... some people care more about a story rather than how challenging and different the gameplay is, some people care more about how visually appealing a game, some people even care more about sounds than anything else.

Personally, I adore a great story as well as great visuals... which is why a large part of my life has been dedicated to film... but to be frank, if a game doesn't have good gameplay, I could care less about the story or the visuals. If all I want is a great story and visuals, I'll stick with movies. If all I want is a great story, I wont even bother with a film, I'll just read a book.

I am curious though... for those that care more about the story in a game than anything else... what's your opinion then on Heavenly Sword? Arguably it was one of the highest praised games in terms of story, but then criticized for gameplay.
 
I am curious though... for those that care more about the story in a game than anything else... what's your opinion then on Heavenly Sword? Arguably it was one of the highest praised games in terms of story, but then criticized for gameplay.
I loved Heavenly Sword but it was a bit short to justify a $60 price tag for me. As for gameplay, my only issue was the large amount of QTEs. At first it appeared to just be a button masher, but to really excel required you to actually learn proper control techniques.


My only concern here is that a game that was great because of story and gameplay is now having a lot of focus taken away from it for multiplayer. If the singleplayer experience is no different, or better, than the first I will be happy. My concern though is that it will be like Halo 2 where I get finished and stand there staring at the screen like the power just cut out, and when I talk about it later everyone just says, "But it has great multiplayer." If any form of the phrase "But it has great multiplayer" is used to describe Among Thieves I will be unlikely to purchase it.
 
There seems to be quite a bit of info about the mutliplayer online at the Sony US blog site.

http://blog.us.playstation.com/2009/04/27/uncharted-2-to-include-multiplayer-beta-starts-june-3rd/

It seems that if you buy inFamous in the US, you get a Beta voucher for the Uncharted 2 online :D

Quote from the comments on the US PS Blog site:
Will all the inFAMOUS games have the vouchers or only the ones reserved in a specific store?
Also, are europeans gonna be able to play the beta?

Evan Wells replied on April 27, 2009 at 10:30 am
You’ll be able to get a multiplayer beta voucher inside inFamous no matter where you purchase it.
And, yes, we’re working on getting the beta set up in Europe too (we’ll let you know as soon as we do).

Super_Spig
 
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